Sunday, December 17, 2006

I try not to repost things, but someone requested this and it's just too good to remain unavailable. I'm talkin' about the soundtrack to Interstate '76, oh yeah. This amazing funk soundtrack is arguably better than the stuff it's paying homage to. Simply fantastic, get it while you can.

Rehashed from my April 18th post:"Nearly 10 years ago, Activision released a computer game called Interstate '76 that featured muscle car mayhem, afroed sidekicks, and a protagonist named Groove Champion. I remember it being fun (but barely running on our computer) and it was followed by a dismal sequel Interstate '82.

The key ingredient that made the original game so good was the wicked funk soundtrack that accompanied the vehicular combat. Heavy on the wah-wah pedal, lots of fuzz, and sexy sax. You can totally imagine this groovy music overlaying a 70's police car chase or possibly porn.

This was one of the first games (that I remember) with professionally recorded soundtrack where the game CD could actually double as an audio CD. As you raced around blowing up other cars, this awesome music played on endless rotation off the CD , which made it easy to ignore the choppy, repetitive gameplay and mediocre graphics (hey, they were cool at the time).

The soundtrack was performed by the one-off band Bullmark headed by Arion Salazar (bassist of Third Eye Blind) and made up of Brian "Brain" Mantia (drummer for Primus), Santana's keyboardist, and other session musicians. Some of these songs are among my most played iTunes tracks, which goes to show how these have long outlasted the novelty of the game."

Interstate '76 soundtrack by Bullmark

"NOTE: these are the 16 tracks that came off the actual game CD. In fact, I only know these songs by track number. Activision actually released an official soundtrack with even more tracks (with real names), which you can read a review of here."

I have yet to hear this official soundtrack since I was too stupid to buy it at the time (if in fact I knew it even existed). Here's a pack of extra Bullmark tracks that I withheld from the original post. I think I downloaded them from Arion Salazar's website, which no longer exists.-Can You Feel-DESTRON Super Jam-Interstate '76 Theme (Slight Return)-Kanegon-Ovum Bisquit-Pocket Full of Yanni-Skaebae Ranger GO!-The Crab Style-Track 12-Track 16-Track 24Get 'em all: Interstate '76 bonus tracks by Bullmark

And would you believe it, an Interstate '76 cover?Aqua Viva - Interstate '76 Theme [originally by Bullmark]That is, if by "Interstate '76 theme", you mean Song #1. I always remembered Song #16 being the main theme... I have no idea where I got this cover and google's no help here.

Hi there, great to see the Bullmark legacy living on! Just to clarify things for anyone who might want it since I had a bitch of a time tracking down this info, I'm aware of three versions of the I76 soundtrack material.

1) Interstate '76 (Game Disc)199632:24

As the name implies, this was the disc that contained the installer and game data. The sweetest part was that it also had 16 audio tracks (playable as an ordinary CD). I've pieced together the track titles from the other two versions.

For quite a while, Arion Salazar's website had these Bullmark tracks available for download as 128K mp3's with artwork. I got the impression from the site that a CD was produced but this is the only place I ever found any hard evidence of it's existence, everywhere else on the web just linked back to this site. I also recall there was a message from Arion stating that they were demos - but they sound amazingly finished. Track titles are as listed on the website.

The only other difference I can see between this and the previous one is that the data track has been included (shifting all the track numbers by one) and "Interstate '76 Theme" is now last instead of first.

unbefreakinglievable. i NEVER knew there was an Official Soundtrack... i didn't think stuff like that started happening till the later GTAs. thanks to your blog, i got all 32 tracks from the Galbadia Hotel site. hey, is there any chance those Bullmark bonus tracks are still anywhere to be found?

you, sir, are BRILLIANT, and you made my freaking week. I'm putting this all together on an absolutely megawhalin' mp3 disc of driving music. the songs from this soundtrack, the bonus songs you just sent, the music from the GT Interactive game Driver, and a handful of authentic songs from this era such as Average White Band's "Pick Up The Pieces" and Kool and the Gang's "Jungle Boogie" and "Summer Madness." If you didn't know the music already, you couldn't tell where the Bullmark ends and the vintage stuff begins. Absolutely brilliant. thanks so much for the files...

I was wondering if anyone knows the song from interstate '76 that begins with a radio scrambled signal and then the tune. I've downloaded the 32 songs soundtrack, but it seems not to be there. I heard that song when playing i76 on windows 3.1. Maybe there was another song. I remember it was a wav file that i could easily rip from the game folders.

I'm not sure exactly what song you're talking about, but I've uploaded every Interestate '76 related track I have here:http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=301946acbe4e30e6b4e0c5efb3960d79ae3bbbe8ce0624be

Any chance for that list of songs from each version of the soundtrack? I have the actual soundtrack disc; the "gold edition" game discs, and the "nitro pack" game disc. There are several songs on the game discs which don't aren't on the official soundtrack and I don't know what they are. Also I'd love to hear those extra tracks that were on Salazar's website. Any help?? :)

Honestly, what you see above in the comments is about as comprehensive as it gets. You can go here to grab the stuff that used to be on Salazar's site. As I understand it, they're the same tracks that have appeared elsewhere. Someone once made a spreadsheet and one song could appear on 4 different incarnations of I76 soundtracks under 4 different names (or no name at all!).

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE COMMENTS!I am a huge fan of this soundtrack, Bullmark should return someday, it would be awesome!I have the "Nitro Pack" game CD, and the soundtrack is different and has some new songs that don't appear on the original soundtrack.I just don't know their songtitles, I will try to find the songtitles from the Nitro Soundtrack.Arion Salazar is a fantastic bass player!

I have always loved the music from this game, back in 2000 I found someone who ripped the music from the game, and I made a CD. Now that CD is dead, and in trying to find the soundtrack again, all that there is available is the official soundtrack (with all the sound effects and voice overs)

However, the official soundtrack is the most comprehensive list of songs.

does anyone have a compilation of all these songs (or most of them) without the sound effects and voice overs?

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